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Object description

Compilation film of British and Canadian forces in the Advance to Victory, Western Front, August-October 1918.

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(Reel 1) Long shots of shells bursting on Bourlon Wood, and of Infantry moving up near Inchy, probably 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, on 4th September. British troops resting on the Cambrai Road with the rubble of the sugar factory behind them. 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion, Canadian 1st Division, moving up in column through rear area transport near Cagnicourt. A returning column of German prisoners. An advanced dressing station, probably near Epéhy, showing in some detail two RAMC sergeants bandaging the leg of a German prisoner. Men of the Royal Naval Division "who the day before had captured Braincourt and Anneux", which they did on 27th September, cheer the camera and march away. German guns, ranging from heavy pieces to machine guns, captured by the Canadian Corps, set out in a park. British or Canadian soldiers posed on the captured German A7V tank 'Hagen'. A column, possibly 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 5th Division, marching through the ruins of Bapaume. The drained Canal du Nord, very steep at this point. A more shallow crossing, with field kitchens moving up and over a temporary bridge. Another column of German prisoners. British troops march along the bed of the canal filmed from a bank. Royal Engineers bring up rails on a flatcar to repair a light railway. An RFA 18-pounder crosses the temporary bridge. A posed group of women, children and old men in Ecourt-St-Quentin - captured by Canadian 4th Division on 4th September - with the Canadians, including three Frenchmen who hid from the Germans. (Reel 2) The ruins of Bapaume, and of the destroyed church at Grévillers. British troops, possibly 55th (West Lancashire) Division, in the ruins of La Bassée facing east towards Bauvin. A few British soldiers cross the La Bassée Canal at a narrow point by climbing over the rubble which has choked it. Mine craters have been blown in the road. A British soldier leads a mule carrying water through the rubble. A German "concrete observation tower camouflaged to look like a house", with most of the camouflage blown away. Two horses, possibly of 55th Division, are led round a crater by a soldier. German barbed wire entanglements at Lens. A bridge being repaired near Albert. The remains of Albert Cathedral, "the Leaning Virgin of 1916 is no more. Probably she is melted down to make Hun shells".